The drinks containing caffeine most loved by young and very young people (tea – for example bottled tea – coffee, chocolate, energy drinks) can trigger and aggravate migraines in children and adolescents: this is suggested by a study published in the journal Pediatrics International and conducted at the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Musashino University in Tokyo.
Caffeine consumption is a risk factor for chronic headache, but few studies have addressed the relationship between caffeine levels in pediatric patients and headache severity. “In this work – write the authors – we examined the associations between the levels of caffeine present in the blood and urine of a sample of children and adolescents and the severity of headache in cases of childhood and adolescent migraine”. The amount of caffeine and substances derived from it in the samples was measured by a technique called liquid chromatography in conjunction with mass spectrometry. Of the 40 patients studied, 34 declared that they consumed drinks containing caffeine such as tea, coffee, chocolate, energy drinks (only one type or more than one type by the same boy) and six did not consume any. Analysis of blood and urine samples revealed nine caffeine negative cases and 31 positive cases. Thirty-one of 40 (77.5%) childhood/adolescent migraine cases tested positive for caffeine. Using a measure of headache severity, the Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6), it was found that young people who consumed drinks containing caffeine scored significantly higher (severe headaches) than to the caffeine-negative group.
“Since our sample of children and young people was numerically small – the first author of the work Toshiyuki Hikita specified to ANSA – we were unable to estimate the risk of migraine associated with the consumption of drinks with caffeine”; further studies will be needed to establish the order of risk, he concludes, nevertheless research clearly shows that childhood/adolescent migraine symptoms are exacerbated by the consumption of caffeine-containing beverages.
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